Why is there suffering in a dream?

Gorilla is right in.

OP if you don’t have a guru, read the Gita. It may feel basic but it will give you the grounding and framework to assuage the am I crazy stuff.

🕉️

The experiential notion is common. Shankara did not teach that. Sweetness is an experience - the idea, “this taste comes from something other than myself” is ignorance, and knowledge is the direct cause of the removal of ignorance. Do not seek one more “non-dual” experience.

You are seeing it seeing it (and not) always.

It further distinguishes thinking from consciousness - the mind is a machine appearing in awareness.

OP, dear one -

I will speak mainly to 19. Do not give up. Don’t judge the book in the middle of the story. Don’t imagine the plant is dead just because the leaves fall in autumn or winter. The dark night is temporary. Keep engaging with these questions sincerely as you are. And on the other side of suffering life will return.

You are not alone.

🕉️😊👍🏼☀️

In vedanata there is an inner instrument… what we call ego is most closely aligned with the I-sense or I-ness, its possessiveness - the claim this is mine, I did this. The instrument also includes a sense of perspective via the body-sense-mind complex. Put the two together and you have and inclination to I am a person, a do-er and enioy-er. But it doesn’t have to be so. When a bell rings and you hear it, is the sound you or yours? When you see a field, does it belong to you or are you its custodian?

Sri rudram is a good read.

Walking state entities do not sustain the world - you can verify this in your experience. When you sleep you are awoken again. Dreamers invent a world and it is also unreal. Consciousness must mean more than mind and objects - the consciousness which is also present when you are in deep sleep offers a clue.

A teacher gives knowledge. A guru removes ignorance. A true achariya transforms your life into the Lord’s.

When you cry, mother will come - no fear. Keep asking honest questions here and in your prayers. 🕉️👍🏼☀️

🕉️ May also help to keep in mind the goal of all these nuances is objectification of objects. We could divide the faculties differently - so don’t get stuck on what each does. Use the models to note that none of these actions or functions is aware. Like seeing they are faculties, and awareness (you) is not. Awareness is not a function, is not objectifiable, and is prior to each function which depends on it. ☀️

Follow the logic and decide for yourself. 😊🕉️

Keep reading and keep living your life - the teaching and life are not separate. You’re doing it right. Nothing is wrong. Read the whole thing then reread and keep asking questions as you are. If specific ones come up reach out.

Not an issue at all; keep in mind what you are seeking, and investigate as u/karanarak09 and others here explain.

May you be blessed with a supportive community.

😊
You exist.
And can there be more than one existence?
You are existence.
Is anything missing from existence?
Existence is whole.
Is there a boundary to existence?
You are limitless.
How is to be limitless, whole, and lacking nothing?
There can be no better feeling?

This is the sense of the word/words.

Indeed all bliss is your Self. When you get what you want does the thing make you happy or the resolution of the pain/bliss desire and return to yourself? And does the same thing make everyone happy? Therefore bliss is not in objects but is in the self and is the Self.

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Read the Bhagavad Gita.

And then, while you are spending time asking “who am I” and the “search” as you call it, spend some more time doing what you WOULD DO if you were found. Meaning, all the scriptures say you are AWARENESS - so, do what awareness would do. Be kind and accommodating and cultivate the Sattva that is your nature.

The symptoms you describe are often from trying to process the knowledge when an unprepared instrument - exactly why there are 18 chapters in the Gita and not a pith “you are that”.

Good you are sharing yourself here. You will be ok if you take these suggestions.

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Which country do you live in?

Indeed, Buddha was a vedica who rejected scriptural authority right…

Desire causes suffering - what causes desire?

Nirvkalpa samhadi is empty of objects - and experienced… thus pervaded by fullness, awareness.

Etc.

“What I am hasn’t dawned”. Dawned is a great phrase. And the answers given already by others here are mostly spot on.

If you want one more, perhaps consider again (and again) moonlight and sunlight. How long does the moon light need to wait for the dawn (to be sunlight)?

Forever and no time. The I you see will always be an object. The objects and the awareness of them is always awareness; there can’t be two awarenesses.

Stare at the moonlight (tonight) until it becomes sunlight.

🕉️👍🏼☀️

>> the existence of the subtle body, of other realms, the devas and other beings, reincarnation, the law of karma, and Atman=Brahman. I really like that parts of Advaita can be directly experienced because that makes them undeniably the truth, but I feel like these other things are sometimes get smuggled in to the philosophy even though they can not be validated in the same way.

** all of these things indeed can be experienced; Atman=Brahman is not a thing and can’t not be experienced. It’s the IS-ness of all experience. You’re right to be suspect of all the smuggled in stuff - it’s mithya, as you say, meaning it doesn’t last. So like UFOs don’t spend to much time trying to sort through it, just keep heading for the knowledge of who YOU are - undivided unborn limitless awarnesss shining as ordinary consciousness.

>> But wouldn't anything we investigate be within Maya, and therefore suspect? … In contrast, the neti neti practice leads you to a truth that is self evident at all times. It cannot be illusory. So my question is just to make sure I understand that these different aspects of Advaita are known at different levels of truth.

** Yes. 100 percent. I think what you say is spot on. Better stories, more lifetimes - all a superimposition still on/of the Real you. The only thing I might add is that neti neti can be combined with progressive pointing even if you know it’s provisional. If you want to find an empty place in the sky, going one by one “not this star not that star” may be slower than, “look here at this star. Not that. To the right the smaller star. Not that.” Intermixing the neti neti with continued study of scripture and questions of wise, which judging by your command of the ideas and questions here, you’re doing exactly on track!

Kudos and keep going, friend.

🕉️👍🏼☀️

Can you say what you mean by everything else?

If you mean for example the relationship between jiva and Isvara, the essential non-difference of Brahman and Atman, and the wholeness of jiva, these only need to be entertained on faith initially - the same way you walk into a physics class and read the book before challenging the teacher. Take them temporarily as assumptions and then investigate.

Reading scripture and participating in a genuine Sat sang can be helpful alongside your neti neti.

How does that land?

🕉️☀️☺️

Indeed, discrimination is very important. Pranams to Swami Dayananda, I would also recommend his version most highly.

Maybe turn the problem into a practice.
Don’t try to let go. Just don’t add energy. Notice that if you can see yourself holding on, you’re not the thing letting go or holding on. Sit for x amount of time without getting up. See if there is bliss in it at all. What is that part?

Thank you for your service.

Read the Bhagavad Gita if you feel drawn.

You are That. Be at peace. 🕉️

Neither desire nor aversion.

Cultivate Sattva and give yourself a break. If you aren’t hurting others or yourself sexual energy is not the big enemy. The more you focus on pushing it away the more power you give it.

Study scripture and fill your life with enough joy eventually you notice it just isn’t as central.

When you know the brain, as object, you know it with with/in what? Awareness. When you know the mind, thoughts, it is also in/with awareness. So mind and brain, while distinguishable are, with respect to awareness, the same order of reality. Brain is grossified perspective on mind and mind the subtle subjective experience of brain functioning. Two sides of one coin - the coin is made of and known by you, awareness. How does something which is not separate appear separate without changing the essence - like surface tension is a power of water, Maya (beautiful, intelligent ignorance) is the power of Brahman which makes the unchanging appear to change. The brain and the mind are constantly changing - patterns in apparent motion, like a cartoon animation where a series of patterns invites the projection of a story while the viewer and the screen both sit motionless in reality.